With our warm temperatures there have been several out-of-season Cyp flowers posted lately. Here is another. This is Cyp ventricosum - a hybrid containing genes from Cyp macranthos and Cyp calceolus. These hybrids are particularly common in the wild in the area where both species are common - the China-Siberia border.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y100/fundulopanchax/Cypmac11Jan2007.jpg

Ron

Beautiful and a great shot!

so very pretty flower:heart:

Wow! That is almost ghostly looking! :eek:

beautiful eggshell white!

Nice clear white one. I like the extra wide petals - definitely there's a lot of macranthos in there. You have to save some pollen for later use. This one would make a dynamite parent.

Nicest Cyp I ever saw...great pic...thnx

:cool: :heart: :heart:

Ron Nice one.
Did You have it growing in pots or is it a newly bought plant? Or was it even blooming outside???? Looks so great we can even enjoy more views on it. A front mugg shot to see how much of macranthos it is in it. :)
It is so bright I got to wear shades 8)

Very White.

Nice growing Ron

That is a beauty!

Ron Nice one.
Did You have it growing in pots or is it a newly bought plant? Or was it even blooming outside???? Looks so great we can even enjoy more views on it. A front mugg shot to see how much of macranthos it is in it. :)
It is so bright I got to wear shades 8)

Hi, Joakim,

It is in a pot (actually all of my macranthos are in pots). We have had very warm temperatures so I have a number of plants that have had to come inside so they do not freeze after breaking dormancy. I even had to dig up two Cyp kentuckiense and pot them! As it turns out it is still stretching out - the flower is much taller tonight than this morning when I took the picture. I will shoot it again in the morning.

Ron

The flower stretched out a bit more today. Here are three views.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y100/fundulopanchax/Cypventricosumwhite11Jan2007.jpg

Great pics showing the different views!

Awesome, beautiful, too bad it has bloomed out of season.

I also like the different angles, very nice!

The last pic is fantastic...thnx

very pretty flower:heart: ty.

Gorgeous Ron! Lots of macranthos blood in that one.

Ron very nice pictures :)
How come You grow the macs in pots? Malmgren and other Swedish growers have them in the garden and they have much less winter than You have if I remember the christmas card from last Year with lots of snow. Macs should withstand cold very well so that is not the problem I presume.
Sorry If You already have explaind it but I have forgot it :(

Nice plant mixing it with some nice mac. Sometimes I wonder where mac ends and venticosum starts. Paul had mac with a bit of calceolus and then Your ventricosum has a lot of mac where draw the line?

Thanks for sharing
Kind regards
Joakim

Ron very nice pictures :)
How come You grow the macs in pots? Malmgren and other Swedish growers have them in the garden and they have much less winter than You have if I remember the christmas card from last Year with lots of snow. Macs should withstand cold very well so that is not the problem I presume.
Sorry If You already have explaind it but I have forgot it :(

Nice plant mixing it with some nice mac. Sometimes I wonder where mac ends and venticosum starts. Paul had mac with a bit of calceolus and then Your ventricosum has a lot of mac where draw the line?

Thanks for sharing
Kind regards
Joakim

Hi, Joakim,

I grow the Asians in pots since I dont have a good spot prepared with inorganics. In my area the ground has a rather acidic pH (that is why in my area we have many wild Cyp acaule but no Cyp reginae and few Cyp parviflorum, whereas about 25 km from here there is much limestone so the groundwater has a more neutral pH and there are no Cyp acaule and plentiful Cyp parviflorum - and a few Cyp reginae but those are stolen quickly when they bloom) so I have been worried that even if I prepare a bed, I would get acidic groundwater mixing in since we have heavy rains. With pots, this is not a problem. However, as I collect more plants and seedlings, pots are their own problem so this season I will probably construct some raised beds for these species.

Drawing the line between macranthos and ventricosum is difficult in many cases. Macranthos flowers have a very characteristic shape in being "fat" with rather tight petals wrapped fairly close to the lip. Calceolus is a much more upright flower and the lateral petals are quite long and loosely held to the side.

When looking at the flowers, if the typical macranthos look is altered by having the upright petals (I have referred to it as a stretched look), then I assume ventricosum. In the scientific literature there are even subnames below ventricosum which are used to account for the relative fraction of genes from each species the describer thinks is responsible for a given look - that is beyond my ability to guess so I leave it at ventricosum. Some ventricosum have very "stretched" looks that are quite elegant. This flower approaches some of the best I have seen but is not quite at that level. Perhaps in a more typical blooming year it will achieve that magical look.

I do also like the typical macranthos look, it is simply very different. If I see a flower that appears as a small buddha, I immediately think macranthos, tibeticum, calcicolum - that group, and then look for the distinguishing characters.

Ron

Thanks for that information Ron.
Have You thought of using lining in a normal bed as an alternative to raised beds?
The lining would stop running acid rain water but not ground water. There would be need of openings of the linings in the bottom, I presume, hence the lack of protection against ground water.

Thanks for describing the differences as well.

Kind regards
Joakim

Thanks for that information Ron.
Have You thought of using lining in a normal bed as an alternative to raised beds?
The lining would stop running acid rain water but not ground water. There would be need of openings of the linings in the bottom, I presume, hence the lack of protection against ground water.

Thanks for describing the differences as well.

Kind regards
Joakim

Hi, Joakim,

I have used linings in the past where I have had drier ground that I wanted to keep more moist. I think where I am now, with linings I would be too wet, but raised beds should work well.

Best,

Ron